[2019] PSA: A new(ish) PvP exploit in Adventure Mode. Watch out!

I have seen this a couple times, but tonight I ran into a group of assholes who seem to have "perfected" it, and this nonsense needs a patch/awareness from the public so you don't fall victim to dickheads:

Indirect player killing with radiation damage. (Especially dangerous Vs. Bloodied builds.)

How this works is someone chucks a nuke mine/grenade at you out of combat(Especially while you are in a workbench or AFK). It won't do any direct damage, but has a VERY nasty radiation after-effect that can quickly eat up nearly half of your health bar, depending on what equipment you are wearing. It seems the area of effect can also be doubled with the Grenadier perk card, so it can be difficult to get out of the effected area before being fried, if you are taken by surprise. A person using a Bloodied build or wearing a High-Capacity Backpack (which has the STUPID effect of -60 rad resist. WHY!?!? This makes absolutely no damn sense.) is in danger of being fried on the spot in seconds.

Worse, it actually counts as a "player kill". I was just informed you don't actually lose caps, although you DO get the option to seek revenge, so it fools a lot of people into thinking they DID lose caps, getting angry, and being tricked into attacking. And these kinds of people are going to take your dropped stuff, and run in full teams so you can't hope to fight back. Because idiots can't win a fair fight, online or otherwise.

So, Bethesda needs to patch this of course. But until they do (Some sh*t they haven't patched since release almost a year ago, and who knows HOW long it will take them or even IF they will fix this), what precautions should you take?

1. First, lock the door/doors to your house when you are crafting. If they have to pick the lock to get in, at least they get a bounty.
2. If a guy shows up in your house WITH a bounty because they picked your lock, DON'T shoot them. Anyone that brazen probably has 3 friends crouched with Chameleon armor outside ready to Cool-Aid Man through your house as soon as you initiate combat. They like to break your generators and rad showers, workbenches, etc... Anything they can do to f*ck with you, and you won't beat a team of 4. Even if you do, your house will still be smashed to rubble. Check very thoroughly before you engage someone with a bounty. These days it's usually a trap.
3. Store all your loot in your stash. That way they don't get jack. Don't walk around with hours worth of material farming/flux in your inventory. It's stupid. Store. Your. sh*t. Once it's in your stash box, nothing and nobody can take it from you.
4. If you don't want to leave the world, crouch and fast-travel away. It might take time to figure out all the people on the offender's team and blacklist them, and blacklisting doesn't mean they can't stumble on you by accident later. And while you are in that menu, the knuckleheads can chuck more mines at you while you are immobile in your game menus. But if you fast travel crouched first, they will have no idea where you went, can't see you on the map, and you can take your time blacklisting their whole team. And without you there to try goading into a fight, they can't break your house.
5. This is an exploit. Report them for exploiting. MAYBE you can get them banned and screw them out of their real-world money. Bethesda's track record with this isn't very good, but it's worth taking a couple minutes for the possibility of getting an asshole's account taken away.

Edit: A sixth counter-measure is just crouching in your camp. People actively looking for people in their camps to use this trick on won't see you on the map.

Edit edit: After having a think, there MIGHT be a "good" use for this: Making people purposely blocking shops and vending machines knock it off.

Edit edit edit: Since I keep getting bull about whether or not this is exploiting, whether it is a banable offense, and "Bethesda does nothing about cheaters/exploiters/etc.., so why even bother to report them?", here is my partial reply to another user, so I don't need to do this again:

As for the question of whether it is an exploit or not, here's the Wiki definition of what an exploit is:

"In video games, an exploit is the use of a bug or glitches, game system, rates, hit boxes, speed or level design etc. by a player to their advantage in a manner not intended by the game's designers."

The action described in this post was not intended by the devs, and it gains the perpetrator an advantage. It is the very definition of an exploit.

Is it a banable offense?

Well, on the official Bethesda Support website under the "Report Player" directory, under "Sub-Category" when reporting a player, the fourth option down is "I want to report cheating / EXPOLITING."

Yes. It is a banable offense.

As for reporting and asking something be done about this:

"So what? Bethesda doesn't fix "A" so why bother to ask them to fix "B"?" - This is a well-known old logical fallacy called The Worst Negates the Bad.

Doing this is an exploit. It IS banable if Bethesda bothers to enforce their TOS. You SHOULD report it.

Good luck, and remember not to feed the trolls!

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